1998 (TU)
Events * Anna DeVries hikes parts of the Andes. * The Banco de Madrid contributes to build Opus Dei's Manhattan headquarters. * Authorities have still not yet figured out a way to determine which tales of the triads are real and which are false. March * March 23: N-Day. The research satellite Galatea explodes at 1218 UTC, killing its crew and raining quantum-charged radioactives into the jet stream. At 1531 EST, the first publicly-known nova, Randel "The Fireman" Portman, erupts while fighting a school-bus fire in New York. * Louis M. Freeman manifests his plasma powers at this time, fleeing police and National Guard alike.Aberrant: Aberrant Rulebook * (Jeremiah Scripture, life-partner of Divis Mal, erupts no later than this date.)Aberrant: Aberrant: Teragen * Several weeks after N-Day, the Church of the Immanent Escheaton is founded when Chrystian Kalpa experiences a vision: the Quantum Unity (God) is granting certain humans with miraculous powers to prepare the world for the Second coming and the ultimate battle between good and evil. * March-April: New novas emerge daily. Governments unsure how to deal with the phenomenon: United States goes to Defcon 3. UN emergency sessions are called. First usage of the term nova by the media, after the tentative designation for the sub-species: homo sapiens novus. April * April 12: Æon Society director Philippa Lavielle initiates a dialogue with UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan, offering to seek out and study novas. The agreement is to last "unless the current crisis passes or the United Nations is better able to handle the influx of data." Human rights would not be infringed-upon. With Æon's 80-year track record of charitable works and deeds, and given the chance to deal with more pressing nova matters, the UN agrees. May * May 1: The Æon Society publicly announces its UN support and issues an invitation to open dialogue with any interested novas. The UN works behind the scenes to calm and reassure the world that Æon can handle the nova outbreak. CNN reports on the announcement. * May 16: Talk radio's Jordan McDevitt Show takes as its topic novas. Mike from Poughkeepsie says that the UN created the novas as an army of global conquest. Kevin from Decatur reports having read that Æon's "Philippa Deville" sic is literally in bed with someone important at the UN. June * June 30: The UN overwhelmingly passes the Zurich Accord, a document declaring novas to be human beings, with all the rights and responsibilities thereof. A few fundamentalist Islamic nations and dictatorial regimes, all countries with poor human-rights records, protest the resolution. Members of many branches of the Christian and Jewish faiths, as well as other people of faith around the world, likewise express their beliefs that novas are essentially human beings. The Church of Michael Archangel considers this the point at which the UN has completely capitulated to "the Beast." July * July 9: Margaret A. Mercer composes a letter of welcome for employees of Project Pandora, built to study what her friend Doctor Fenster referred to as psychomorphs in the same way that Project Utopia studies eximorphs. She also mentions a Project Tantalus which studies paramorphs. August * August 13: Project Utopia, a multipurpose private foundation ("Creating a Brighter Tomorrow with the Power of Today"), is formed under the joint guidance of the UN and the Æon Society. (In actuality, the Project has existed for several months under the control of Margaret Mercer, but as it goes public it's transferred to a different director. ) Utopia's goal, as stated by Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Æon director Lavielle, is "to utilize the vast powers of novas to better the quality of life for all, human and nova alike, on planet Earth." Membership and training are open to all interested novas, under the direction of Drs. Henri Mazarin and Farah Rashoud. Former assistant secretary of state and UN ambassador Justin J. Laragione is named director, but Mazarin and Rashoud hold most of the real authority. * August 13: Several prominent novas immediately volunteer for service with the Project, including Spencer "Antaeus" Balmer, Steve Debow, Trudy Vandermann, Anthony "Lightning" Chang and Shelby "Caestus Pax" Eisenfaust. * August 13: "Thetis" contacts her former Æon Society liaison and convinces him to employ her as a quality-control regulator within Utopia's Internal Affairs division. October * First media use of the term "baseline" to refer to someone without nova powers. * October 26: Talk radio's Jordan McDevitt Show takes as its topic: "Baseline -- insult or accurate?" Charles from Abilene comes down on the "It's just a scientific term" side, while Phil from Mobile feels insulted to be described "as some sort of lowest common denominator". December * December 4: Drs. Mazarin and Rashoud release their findings ("Nova Powers and Physiology: Initial Findings and Observations") on the discovery of a unique gland found in the brains of novas. This Mazarin-Rashoud (M-R) node is believed to be the root of a nova's abilities. Novas officially dubbed subspecies homo sapiens novus. The Triton Foundation provides funding for Mazarin and Rashoud's research, and much of the other nova research over the next decade. A nova's powers are theorized to derive from manipulation of the basic forces of the universe, also known as the quantum forces: gravity, electromagnetism, weak nuclear force and strong nuclear force. The M-R node allows the nova some degree of channelling and control over the quantum forces. * December 8: The Triton Foundation donates US $10 million to Project Utopia to help fund Mazarin and Rashoud's future research on novas. * December 31: Æon Society census reports approximately 600 known novas in the world population. Notes * Throughout the year, inspired by the coming of the novas and fuelled by millennialist anxiety, various apocalyptic and transcendental religious sects have arisen. Many of these groups see novas as the chosen of God and/or the ultimate development of humanity. The most notable of these is The Church of the Immanent Escheaton, founded by a charismatic nova who calls himself "Chrystian Kalpa"; his Book of Kalpa professes a reality-tunnel that includes elements of Scientology and theosophism, holding that novas are agents of "the Quantum Unity" (God) and that an apocalyptic war is coming between good and evil in which all souls will erupt and choose sides. The Vatican does not take an official position on the status of novas at this time; Protestant and Judaic sects release statements of support for novas, with wording in line with that of the Zurich Accord. Fundamentalist Islamic sects (Shi'a and Wahhabi) decry novas as Eblis' children, but increasingly come into conflict with Sunni/Sufi philosophy exalting novas as the chosen of Allah. References * AB: Aberrant d20 Category:Trinity Universe timeline